Basic Gameplay

White Names Spoiled Past plays like a fairly typical vertically-scrolling danmakushooting game, in which the player's character is always facing towards the top of the screen, shooting at anything that moves, avoiding and weaving between enemy bullets, and confronting difficult bosses at the end of a stage.

There are 4 levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. Each difficulty level features differences in the number of bullets fired by each enemy, rate of fire, variations in the bullets' pattern of movement, and the number and type of enemy Spell Cards used.

The player will traverse 3 increasingly harrowing stages through the course of a regular game.

Shot

A character's "shot" is the player's primary method of attacking enemies. The shot's attack area and behaviour varies depending on the character type the player has chosen.

Point of Collection

There is a line most of the way up the screen called the point of collection. If you move your character at or above this line, all point items on the screen will be drawn to your character. In White Names Spoiled Past, the POC is always available.

Bomb (Player Spell Card)

White Names Spoiled Past features bombs (actually spell cards) with distinctive visual styles that differ between characters. A character's "bomb" is the player's limited-use method of getting out of difficult situations. A bomb's attack area, duration, and power varies depending on the character type the player has chosen, but it typically deals heavy damage to every enemy it touches, in addition to canceling out any bullets in the bomb's way, as well as automatically collecting every item on screen. The player also becomes invincible during a bomb and for a short time after the bomb's effect wears off.

At the beginning of the game, you will start off with 2 bombs. Extra bombs are obtained by collecting bomb fragments, which appear on filling the item meter (see below).

You can carry up to a maximum of 3 bombs at a time. No fragments will be dispensed if the player has the maximum number of bombs.

Lives

In this game, the player's life stock is represented by a health bar with hearts. With default settings, you will start off with 3 lives (i.e. 2 lives in stock). You can lose a life by getting "hit" by an enemy attack.

The hit box for your character is quite small in comparison to your on-screen sprite. If you hold Shift, a dot will usually appear, showing the hitbox precisely. If the hit box of your character's sprite comes into contact with the hit box of an enemy bullet, laser, or the enemy itself, then you have been hit.

If you have bombs in stock and the Bomb key is pressed within a short time of the player's character being hit, then the hit can be negated and countered with a bomb. This counter-bomb time is only a fraction of a second, after which you will lose a life as normal.

Extra lives are obtained by collecting life fragments, which appear on filling the item meter (see below).

Upon losing all their lives, the player is given the choice to continue right where they left off. However, if you do continue, your current score will be reset back to 0 and you will not be able to save a replay of your game.

Boss Battles

The main challenge and the main attraction. Each boss has multiple lives, which are represented by stars shown at the upper left of the screen. Bosses usually alternate between attacking normally and attacking with Spell Cards, switching once with each health bar. Coloured sections on the health bar indicate the start of a Spell Card attack when the boss' health is depleted that far.

Normal attacks are incrementally stronger versions of the boss character's basic attack. Spell Card attacks bedazzle the player with combinations of complex patterns that often involve the use of projectiles and obstacles crafted especially for use with that Spell Card. If the player manages to defeat a Spell Card attack without getting hit or using any bombs, a substantial score bonus is rewarded for the feat.

Each attack is accompanied by a timer. When time runs out, the boss will switch to their next attack pattern even if their health bar isn't empty. Waiting for a boss character's attack pattern to self-destruct may be enough to beat them, but in general mere survival won't earn the player any score bonuses.

When fighting a boss, a position marker shows up on the bottom margin of the screen, indicating where the boss is on the horizontal axis. Since your target can be completely obscured by bullets or darkness at times, use this marker to help you aim your shots.

Character Statistics

There are three pairs of characters to choose from in the game, each with two shot types. Each shot type has a different weapon for fast and slow movement, and each character has a special ability.

Screen Layout

Bugs

Scoring

Listed below are the game systems in White Names Spoiled Past, including the details for how points are given.

Enemies

Any damage you deal to any enemy, whether it be caused by your shots or your bombs, will cause your score to increase. Actually destroying enemies will award you slightly more points. In addition, enemies shoot bullets for you to "graze" and release items for you to collect, and those are very important for scoring as covered below.

Grazing

"Grazing a bullet" means to have a bullet or laser come dangerously close to your hitbox. You can only graze a bullet once, so you won't gain any additional points or graze by following a bullet. Lasers can be continually grazed throughout their duration, but once again, moving around will not gain you any additional points or graze.

Every 10 graze points adds 10 points to the point item value.

Boukyaku Items

Boukyaku items are the major source of points in the game. The base value of each point item is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen, above the multiplier. Its starting value depends on the difficulty:

Difficulty

Start value

Easy

10,000

Normal

15,000

Hard

20,000

Lunatic

25,000

Extra

30,000

Overdrive

50,000

The point item value is increased by grazing, and collecting small boukyaku items. These items are released by cancelling enemy bullets, which can come from finishing a boss attack, or using a bomb, or by filling up the boukyaku gauge. However, spell cards won't produce small items when timed out. Small boukyaku items also add ___ points each directly to your score.

The total added point item value is:

(number of small boukyaku items collected / 5) + (graze counter)

This is rounded down to the nearest 10.

Boukyaku Gauge

This gauge determines the awarding of bomb and life fragments. The gauge fills every 100 items, and awards life fragments on every fourth fill and bomb fragments otherwise. In addition, items will be released that increase point item value.

If the player has 3 bombs in stock (the maximum), the gauge will only fill up to 99, but will not release any items. This should therefore be avoided if possible.

Spell Card Bonus

Occasionally, a boss will attack using a Spell Card. You will know this is happening when the background changes and the Spell Card's name appears in the upper right corner of the screen. If the boss's health bar is depleted within the time limit and without getting hit or using a bomb, the Spell Card bonus will be added to your score.

The bonus starts at out at a value equal to:

PIV * 10 * ( 11 + 3*difficulty )

with difficulty value being:

Easy

0

Normal

1

Hard

2

Lunatic

3

Extra

4

Overdrive

5

The bonus decreases over time, starting 5 seconds after the spell card starts. The bonus decreases at a constant rate of:

2 / 3 (?) × (starting value) / (time limit in seconds - 5) per second

Clear Bonus

At the end of each stage, the player is awarded a point bonus based on their performance throughout the stage.